The Telangana High Court directed the State government to file an affidavit explaining the steps taken to improve infrastructure and other facilities following the death of five infants in a recent fire accident Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences at Adilabad.
“We want complete details,” said Acting Chief Justice P. Sam Koshy. The Acting CJ, along with Justice Suddala Chalapathi Rao, was hearing a PIL petition over strengthening the infrastructure at government hospitals in the State in compliance with a verdict of Supreme Court.
Senior counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for the PIL petitioner K.A. Sri Guru Teja, requested the Bench to pass appropriate orders in the matter in the backdrop of lives of five infants being snuffed out in the government hospital due to a fire accident.
When the Bench sought to know how the PIL petition, filed in 2024, was connected to the gory incident reported on the night of September 21 of this year, the senior counsel explained that the petitioner had filed an interlocutory application over the death of five infants and injuries sustained by 22 other infants at the RIMS in Adilabad.
The petitioner, while seeking orders as per the Apex Court verdicts on facilities in government hospitals, wanted the HC to award ₹50 lakh compensation to each of the families of the five infants who died in the accident.
The Bench made it clear to the government counsel that it wanted the affidavit to be filed by an officer of the rank of Secretary to the government. “Not by an officer of the medical college,” the Acting CJ said.
The Bench also directed the Registry to tag the PIL plea with another petition which originated after the HC Bench received a communication about the fire accident at RIMS.
Both the pleas were adjourned to November 5 for next hearing.
Published - October 15, 2026 10:07 pm IST